Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) grown diamonds can be difficult to distinguish from mined diamonds using conventional techniques. Detection of CVD diamond is of importance to the diamond industry to prevent the fraudulent sale of CVD diamond as natural diamond, and to enable the detection of CVD diamond for the purpose of ensuring that there is no misrepresenting natural as CVD diamond. Further, the detection of CVD diamond may be useful for protecting intellectual property rights.
The detection of CVD diamond is difficult and laborious due to the fact that multiple instruments are needed. Such instruments are used to first determine that the diamond in question is a type II A. Colorless cvd diamonds currently are type II A which indicates a very low nitrogen level. The instruments are then used for testing for the presence of N-V centers, which are a substitutional nitrogen atom adjacent to a carbon vacancy. Finally, instruments are used to microscopically view diamonds for features such as strain. All of these tests are required to raise the certainty that a diamond is natural or cvd. None of these tests are complete in themselves, as the presence of N-V centers is rare in natural diamonds, but does occur. Such N-V centers fluoresce at red-orange wavelengths due to it's two main emission peaks centered at 575 and 637 nm. The purer the diamond the weaker the fluorescence. The fluorescence can also be seen by illuminating the diamond with short wavelength ultraviolet light in an expensive instrument such as the “Diamond View”. The detection process is long and difficult for large pure stones and nearly impossible for small stones.